Cornel West
Philosopher, public intellectual
Sayings by Cornel West
I'm a bluesman in the life of the mind, a jazzman in the world of ideas.
Obama posed as progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency.
White supremacy is America's original sin.
Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.
To be a Christian is to be a follower of the historical Jesus, who was a revolutionary Jew.
Justice is not a thing, it's a practice.
Hope is not an emotion; it's a way of life. Hope is a verb, not a noun.
To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.
The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.
We are living in a society that is rapidly losing its capacity for empathy.
The greatest threat to American democracy is not external, but internal.
To be a prophet is to be a truth-teller in a world of lies.
The American empire is in decline, and we must be honest about it.
Love is not just a feeling; it's a practice of justice.
The greatest challenge of our time is to keep despair at bay.
We must never confuse a moment with a movement.
To be revolutionary is to be a lover of truth and justice.
The legacy of white supremacy is still alive and well in America.
Neoliberalism is the new Jim Crow.
The function of a university is to produce not just specialists, but citizens.